The Gist of Science Reporter: January 2015
India Makes it to Mars in the First Attempt
Tension writ large on his forehead, body stooped on the
console, ISRO chief K. Radhakrishnan was in a pensive mood. So were the 60-70
odd engineers in the control room, who were intensely staring at the consoles.
Everyone spoke in whispers, hustled around, stiff and anxious. The time ticked
by, and in the tensed silence one could have heard heart beats.
At that instant, there was no radio link between the Mars Orbiter Mission
(MOM) and the ground station as MOM was on the other side of Mars.
As the electronic clock on the wall silently flashed the
time, one could feel an air of expectancy and anxiety. As soon as the clock
struck 8.00 am, a broad grin appeared on ISRO chief Radhakrishnan’s countenance.
Now relaxed, the chief swiftly reached for his phone. The broad smile and the
abrupt change in the body language gave it away.
ISRO had made it - MOM had entered into the orbit of Mars! The journey that
started about 10 months ago on a balmy Tuesday evening had succeeded. A new
chapter in Indian space history had commenced.
MOM Gets Ready
India’s mission to Mars was conceived way back in 2010. After
intense scrutiny, the final go-ahead was given by the Government on 3 August
2012. Within two days ISRO commenced the preparation of the Polar Satellite
Launch Vehicle (PSLV) in Thiruvananthapuram and spacecraft fabrication at the
ISRO satellite centre in Bangalore.
Working day and night, the launch vehicle, spacecraft and
payloads were fabricated, tested, integrated and made ready, fit to fly in a
record time of 15 months. All the components were moved to the Sriharikota-SHAR
launch site for integration on 2 August 2013, well ahead of the scheduled
initial launch date. MOM was mated with the launch vehicle, fuelling was
commenced, and all was set for the launch on 28 October.
Route to Mars
The road to Mars is not a straight line. Indeed, H.G. Wells
in his War of the Worlds speculated that when Mars and Earth were in inferior
conjunction (same side of the Sun, therefore at the least distance from each
other), a canon could be fired from Earth aimed at Mars enabling transportation.
‘Aim and Shoot’ could work well in science fiction, but in reality by the time
the spacecraft nears the point where Mars was in space, it would have moved away
in its orbit around the Sun.
Therefore, just like one shoots a flying bird by aiming ahead
of its flight path rather than at its current location, it is imperative that
the arrival of the spacecraft at the Mars orbit coincides with the arrival of
Mars itself at the same location in space.
Towards Mars
Thankfully, the ships employed for their tracking facilities
reached their scheduled places and the launch date was rescheduled to 5 November
2013. The PSLV rocket took the spacecraft to its initial 248 km x 23,500 km
elliptical orbit. By performing several burns with its 440 N Liquid Apogee Motor
(LAM) engine, when the spacecraft was closest to Earth (perigee), the altitude
of the apogee (the farthest point of its orbit from Earth) was raised in
succession. Although one of these orbit-raising manoeuvres faced a glitch, it
was set right in the subsequent supplementary operation.
